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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The Prodigal Son

Of all of the
characters in the bible who I like and admire, I admire the Prodigal Son and
his Father.To recap:the youngest son decides to take his share of
the inheritance and goes off and squanders it on a lifestyle that I don’t know
if anyone would approve of, even by today’s standards.He runs out of money and as he’s feeding
pigs, considers eating what the pigs are eating.He realizes that even the slaves of his
father are living and eating better than he is now.So he comes home begging forgiveness.

The young man
hits rock bottom.How much lower can he possibly
go?I think not too much more if he’s
considering eating the slop the pigs are eating.But instead of giving up, he goes home.It takes courage to admit a mistake, to admit
you’ve done wrong.It takes courage to
own up to a poor decision, a poor lifestyle choice.How many times do we see someone hide from
it, blame someone else, keep on doing damage to oneself and others by
continuing with the poor choice or even worse, give up completely?This young man doesn’t do any of this.He comes home, admits his mistake, begs
forgiveness, and even offers to live as one of the slaves to earn his
keep.I would say the young man learned a
painful, but necessary lesson and grew up.

Who I admire
most though is the Father.According to
the story, he sees his son who is still far off.That implies that he has been looking and
waiting for his son to return.Talk
about love and forgiveness!He didn’t
say, “I told you so!”He didn’t say, “You
screwed up!”He didn’t say, “Forget
it.You had your chance and you blew it!”No, he didn’t choose any of these
options.Instead, the Father embraced
his son.He put a ring on his finger, a
cloak on his shoulders and threw him a party.I said it once, but talk about love and forgiveness!No grudge.No, “You have to earn it!”Just
the love from a Father who cared and was concerned enough to wait and watch and
see his Prodigal Son from afar.

I see myself at
various times playing the role of the Prodigal Son and at times playing the
role of the Father.How much more I
enjoy being the Father!I get to search
and welcome back.I get to forgive and
move on.I get to feel better and make
someone else feel better too.Two for
the price of one really good decision, one really good choice.How much better can it possibly get?